Posts by Michelle Schwartz

Nathalie Younglai, Farah Merani and Gillian Müller are multi-talented media makers committed to changing the industry. Together, they are three-fourths of the producing team behind the queer Black superhero comedy Super Zee (The fourth, Jay Vaidya, was out making the next ground-breaking project at the time of our interview). In the first part of our conversation, we talked about the making of Super Zee and its all-POC crew. Here, they share insight about their careers, self-doubt and why you should ignore what people say about how to make it in showbiz. READ MORE

Super Zee is an action comedy about a queer Black superhero saving the world from microaggressions. The crew behind it is made up entirely of People of Colour. I had the privilege of talking about the show, the biz, and challenging what’s possible, with three of Super Zee’s four creators. (The fourth, writer-producer Jay Vaidya, was out working on the next ground-breaking project at the time of our interview.) READ MORE

Today’s political climate is hardly encouraging. With daily news headlines detailing further and further encroachments on fundamental human rights, with the kindling of rhetoric and aggression against disenfranchised groups, it’s easy to feel defeated, angry, or hopeless. It might sound trite, or just overly optimistic, but exposing myself to a documentary series on powerful, revolutionary women had an incredibly lifting effect. I recommend it as a form of self-care, a 70-minute to two-hour respite, and a boost for your own political capacity. READ MORE

Early in the novel Motherhood (published this May by Knopf Canada), Sheila Heti’s narrator provides a summary of the Biblical story of Jacob wresting the angel. In this story, a creature appears to Jacob, proceeds to wrestle with him overnight, and, come morning, spares Jacob and renames him “Israel.” Jacob calls the wrestling place “Peniel,” and refers to it as the spot where he came face to face with God, and made it out alive. Heti’s novel ends with the story of Jacob and the angel as well, except now it is a reference to the book the narrator has just finished writing. The narrator—a woman close to 40 years of age, living in Toronto, a fairly successful writer—comes to see her book as the wrestling ring where she faced God and made it out alive. She names this place Motherhood. READ MORE

The idea of containing the whole history of the breakup in a short book—everything that has led us to a moment when women (at least some women, in certain parts of the world) are able to freely leave relationships, all in 120 pages—is daunting to say the least. The study of how relationships have evolved, and how the historically socially-condoned male-female romantic relationship developed and came to dominate in Western culture—is gargantuan in scope. Yet it is one that Kelli María Korducki has pulled off, in a format that could easily be read in one sitting. READ MORE

Fun Home, the musical based on the graphic memoir by Dykes to Watch Out For cartoonist, Alison Bechdel, is on stage now in Toronto. The show features three actresses playing the role of Alison Bechdel – as a young girl (Small Alison), as a university student (Medium Alison), and as a forty-something woman (Alison). We spoke with Sara Farb, who plays Medium Alison. READ MORE

Featuring documentaries from across the world, the Hot Docs festival in Toronto runs from April 26 to May 6, 2018. Check out part one of our reviews series, featuring the films People’s Republic of Desire, Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution, and Netizens. Hot Docs offers free same-day tickets for all screenings before 5:00 p.m. to students with valid photo I.D. at the venue box offices (subject to availability). READ MORE

In the lead up to the Oscars, we will be posting reviews for some of the nominated movies. The forth review in our series is for I, Tonya, which received three nominations, including Best Actress (Margot Robbie) and Best Supporting Actress (Allison Janney). READ MORE

In the lead up to the Oscars, we will be posting reviews for some of the nominated movies. The third review in our series is for The Shape of Water, which received 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Guillermo del Toro), Best Original Screenplay (Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor), Best Actress (Sally Hawkins), and Best Supporting Actor (Richard Jenkins). This review contains spoilers for The Shape of Water. READ MORE

In the lead up to the Oscars, we will be posting reviews for some of the nominated movies. Our first review is for Lady Bird, which garnered five nominations, for Best Picture, Best Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Best Supporting Actress (Laurie Metcalf), and Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (Greta Gerwig). READ MORE

M is a member of the Philadelphia-based collective METROPOLARITY, a sci-fi and speculative fiction group that, in their words, uses writing to ride against empire. While I was living in Philadelphia I got into M’s writing through their zine about cyborgs navigating dystopia called All That’s Left. I loved this zine because it re-ignited the old sci-fi nerd in me while opening up new possibilities for queer, trans and non-binary worlds. Interviewing them was a great chance to reconnect and speak about science fiction, binaries, and writing your dreams. READ MORE

Julia Cratchley is the Artistic Director of the Transcendance Project, a contemporary dance company based in Toronto. Starting out as a dancer in a fine arts high school in Richmond Hill, Ontario, she’s gone on to dance and choreograph shows with companies across Canada. Julia is the creator, director, and choreographer for Eve of St. George, an immersive recreation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, inspired by Sleep No More, an immersive show still playing in New York. In immersive theatre, the audience wanders through the set, choosing their own path and even interacting with the performers. Each audience member’s experience of the show is unique. Eve of St. George will be taking over four levels of the Great Hall in Toronto at the end of the month. We spoke with Julia Cratchley about her artistic process and the creation of Eve of St. George. READ MORE

Earlier this year, a New Yorker article called “The Personal-Essay Boom Is Over” sparked a heated debate on the truth of its title’s claim. In short, the author, Jia Tolentino, argued that personal essays, the kind written mostly by women, often young women, often writers who are just starting out and who do not get paid much for the online publication of said personal essay, and whose said personal essay focuses on the deeply, often shockingly, personal (Tolentino gives the example of an essay published by Jezebel about a tampon lost inside the author’s body), are a thing of the past. READ MORE

There is one thing that is never simple: money. As a college or university student, things only become more daunting with tuition invoices, rent, bills, and other income-absorbing expenses. Students often hold part-time jobs to accumulate income during their studies; for low-income students this is often essential. Desperate enough, students sometimes enter into stressful and toxic work environments. READ MORE

After a number of conversations with colleagues, friends, and family, and reviewing online comments, I find that people either adore Kaur’s minimalist style of art or they shake with disapproval. The latter seem to express a similar attitude: this type of writing isn’t “real” poetry, or “I could write that,” or it’s already been done/said. In school, you may have learned about haiku and rhyme pattern, imagery and alliteration. These are important for understanding poetry’s structure, or for an introduction to what poetry has been in the past. But I’d like to consider: how do we define poetry? READ MORE

Recently in the media Black women’s bodies in particular have been under high scrutiny. If you Google Beyoncé or Rihanna right now much of what shows up is focused on their bodies and the changes they are going through. It is clear that Fat is still deemed as a bad word. The internet memes implying that Quantasia Sharpton is too fat to have possibly slept with Usher reveal how much our society literally steals away desirability and humanity from fat women. All the memes implying Rihanna must be pregnant as a way of explaining her recent weight gain are a sad reminder that while the body positivity movement is in full effect we still need a more comprehensive conversation around Fat positivity, one that includes sexual health, desirability and awareness around consent. READ MORE